Roma in Hungary:
The Hungarian Roma population, estimated at 876,000 or more than 8% of the overall population, is the country’s largest minority group. State policies aimed at the Roma population have existed for decades, addressing a wide range of complex issues such as housing, employment, education, and health.
The ‘Hungarian National Social Inclusion Strategy 2020-2030’ (HNSIS) attempts to base its intervention areas and values on the ‘EU Roma Strategic Framework 2020-2030’, although it is best described as an inclusive but not exclusive policy document. It addresses the Roma community as part of Hungary’s most deprived population, but refuses to exclusively target them, which means that the HNSIS as a wholeaims to form and implement mainstream policies that generally target people in poverty. This broad policy approach to Roma inclusion impedes evaluators and independent stakeholders from truly learning about the effectiveness of approaches and hinders their monitoring and assessment of the results in significant ways.
Key problems:
In recent years, the decreasing number of inhabitants living in poverty was presented as the main achievement of social inclusion policies in Hungary. Governmental reports cite it as a great success while their critics point out that it is a result of general economic improvement and the recovery from the 2008 economic crisis. Moreover, Roma families’ exposure to poverty is three-four times higher than of the rest of the population.
Further, researchers and civil experts raise their voices against growing school segregation, and against the educational system which strengthens social inequalities and provides lower level of education for children living in poverty. In contrast, the government highlights their effort to restructure the educational system. Many times, the opposite sides could not even agree on statistical data on education finance, the results of international and national student performance tests, or the indicators of church participation in education.
Hungarian National Social Inclusion Strategy 2020-2030 (Ministry of Interior, in Hungarian)
RCM Coordinator:
RCM coalition members:
- Romaversitas Foundation
- Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation Foundation
- 1Magyarország – One Hungary Initiative
- Autonomia Foundation
- Civil Tanács
- Amari Kris
- Subjective Values Foundation
- Diverse Youth Network
RCM 2 (2021-2025) reports:
Roma Civil Monitor (2022) Civil society monitoring report on the quality of the national strategic framework for Roma equality, inclusion, and participation in Hungary. ENGLISH – ROMANI – HUNGARIAN
Poster presenting main findings of the report (2022):
RCM 1 (2017-2020) reports:
Roma Civil Monitor (2017) Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategies in Hungary: Focusing on structural and horizontal preconditions for successful implementation of the strategy. ENGLISH – HUNGARIAN
Roma Civil Monitor (2018) Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategy in Hungary: Assessing the progress in four key policy areas of the strategy. ENGLISH – HUNGARIAN
Roma Civil Monitor (2020) Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategy in Hungary: Identifying blind spots in Roma inclusion policy. ENGLISH – HUNGARIAN
Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in Hungary. ENGLISH
Roma Civil Monitor 2017-2020 country fiche: Hungary
Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) report:
Decade of Roma Inclusions (2013) Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in Hungary. ENGLISH